Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tastes his very first Russian single malt. Kemlya is a distillery in Mordovia that was founded by Stepan Stepanovich Krotkov in 1828 in the village of the same name, halfway between Moscow and Samara. It has been in continuous production and will therefore celebrate its 200th anniversary in a few years. The production of whisky is much more recent. The first release dates from 2022. Mark’s friend Kit recently came to visit him and brought this beautifully packaged bottle. The Black Oak matured in two bourbon barrels (numbers #1367 and #1370) and was finished for 6 months in moist bog oak, barrels made from partly petrified, very old oak from a swampy area. Exciting!
